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The best automaker really depends on the level of luxury you're going for. Toyota's Lexus line is by far ahead of the crowd when it comes to features, reliability, etc. The general Toyota line, while good, is a few steps down from the Lexus line IMO. I personally prefer Honda. My last two cars have been Honda and they have been a staple in my family for a couple of decades now. I drive an Acura now and I have been extremely happy with my purchase.

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That's a tough one. Hondas really seem to be great reliable cars, but I can't stand the feel of the Honda Civic or Accord interior. The seats are hard as rocks, and the controls seem "Grandma-ish". Toyota cars don't impress me at all, especially the Camry (boring). But it's a well run company and they have branding down to an artform. We have owned a few Nissan's, and despite some poor interior fit/finish issues, they seem to be good cars.

Has anyone else been sitting next to a Volkswagen Bug at a light and noticed "rattling" and "banging" noises from the engine? Or owned one and had problems? I've noticed it at least 3 or 4 times in the past couple of months.

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Most of the older members of my family buy GM or Ford. The Fords (Town Cars, a Crown Victoria, Mercury Sables) all seem to fall apart inside and wind up with serious engine troubles. The GMs are better, but there was a real problem with my uncle's Impala recently that happened oddly right after his car went over the mileage for the warranty and the repair would've cost over $1,000. I don't remember what it was, only that the manager at the local dealership was nice enough to do it for free. Isn't it odd that so many of the older cars that you see on the road were made in Japan? It's like they built the American cars to only last so long.

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In quality surveys. GM's vehicles are the top rated among US made vehicles. It's higher than alot of foriegn auto makers. The quality difference more comes in design, American auto makers have been plagued with mediocre vehicles. Inside and out. The interior of an Accord Blows away the interior of a Ford 500. I've never been a ford fan. To me they have the most boring fleet of vehicles on the road. It would take more than a mustang to make up for them. Although, I will say they've made some good strides lately.

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I have purchased new, a Toyota, a Honda, a Ford, and a Mercedes (pre DiamlerChrysler). Without any question the Ford was the the sorriest vehicle of the bunch, not even close. This vehicle began to have problems almost as soon as I drove it off the lot and then proceeded to get worse from there. Everything broke on this car, sometimes more than once. At 63,000 miles it simply self destructed as the head gaskets blew out in the engine (a common Ford problem). I spent a lot of money to get this problem fixed and it happened again along with the transmission giving out in the process. The repairs were more costly than what the car was worth (depreciation on Ford is horrible) so I ended up junking it. An almost total loss for a vehicle that didn't even make it to 90K miles. (this was a Taurus LX)

I tend to keep my cars for a long time and in comparison the Toyota, Honda, and Mercedes have operated past 100K miles with almost no issues.

FORD = Fix Or Repair Daily or Found On Road Dead. Both happened to me, literally.

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I have purchased new a Toyota, a Honda, a Ford, and a Mercedes (pre DiamlerChrysler). Without any question the Ford was the the sorriest vehicle of the bunch, not even close. This vehicle began to have problems almost as soon as I drove it off the lot and then proceeded to get worse from there. Everything broke on this car, sometimes more than once. At 63,000 miles it simply self destructed as the head gaskets blew out in the engine (a common Ford problem). I spent a lot of money to get this problem fixed and it happened again along with the transmission giving out in the process. The repairs were more costly than what the car was worth (depreciation on Ford is horrible) so I ended up junking it. An almost total loss for a vehicle that didn't even make it to 90K miles. (this was a Taurus LX)

I tend to keep my cars for a long time and in comparison the Toyota, Honda, and Mercedes have operated past 100K miles with almost no issues.

FORD = Fix Or Repair Daily or Found On Road Dead. Both happened to me, literally.

I feel your pain. Growing up, my father swore by Fords... but yet they were always having to be repaired! Therefore I've sworn them off, personally.

I tend to like Hondas the most, but have come to love my Hyundai Sonata as well.

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The best automaker really depends on the level of luxury you're going for. Toyota's Lexus line is by far ahead of the crowd when it comes to features, reliability, etc. The general Toyota line, while good, is a few steps down from the Lexus line IMO. I personally prefer Honda. My last two cars have been Honda and they have been a staple in my family for a couple of decades now. I drive an Acura now and I have been extremely happy with my purchase.

When it comes to luxury vehicles I hardly think that Lexus leads the pack in anyhting but reliability. I know Caddilacs and Jaguars both have a better fit and finish than a Lexus from personal experience, I would assume that Mercedes and BMW do also. Acura, Inifinity and Audi ar probaby more comparable.

I'm a big fan of classic cars my self, when it comes to newer cars I like what I can't afford. When it comes to the affordable new models, I don't have a real strong preference, I like a lot of the Chrysler products, like the 300, Crossfire, Challenger and Ram trucks. But VW does own Lamborghini...

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When it comes to luxury vehicles I hardly think that Lexus leads the pack in anyhting but reliability. I know Caddilacs and Jaguars both have a better fit and finish than a Lexus from personal experience, I would assume that Mercedes and BMW do also. Acura, Inifinity and Audi ar probaby more comparable.

I'm a big fan of classic cars my self, when it comes to newer cars I like what I can't afford. When it comes to the affordable new models, I don't have a real strong preference, I like a lot of the Chrysler products, like the 300, Crossfire, Challenger and Ram trucks. But VW does own Lamborghini...

Cadillacs are still GM and Jaguars are still Ford. I've had family that has had both and while the Cadillacs did do fair the Jaguars in my family have been a complete failure living up to their parent company's reputation for a lot of us. I'm basing my opinion on Lexus and Acura with the fact that when you clump style, reliability, safety, etc. together they continually come out on top.

When I purchased my last car (04 Acura TL) I also looked into Infinity, Audi, and BMW. I honestly believe that the Acura is a bit ahead of the curve in terms of the interior, features, etc. when compared to the BMW line (depending on how much money you're wanting to throw at it of course). Point being, when you put $50k at a car you want the best out of all categories and lines like Lexus and Acura almost always come out on top.

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I've been a Chevy Truck man all my life, and I've never had any problems with Chevrolet. My dad still drives his old Silverado, which now has over 300,000 miles on it, and the thing runs like it's brand new.

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Cadillacs are still GM and Jaguars are still Ford. I've had family that has had both and while the Cadillacs did do fair the Jaguars in my family have been a complete failure living up to their parent company's reputation for a lot of us. I'm basing my opinion on Lexus and Acura with the fact that when you clump style, reliability, safety, etc. together they continually come out on top.

When I purchased my last car (04 Acura TL) I also looked into Infinity, Audi, and BMW. I honestly believe that the Acura is a bit ahead of the curve in terms of the interior, features, etc. when compared to the BMW line (depending on how much money you're wanting to throw at it of course). Point being, when you put $50k at a car you want the best out of all categories and lines like Lexus and Acura almost always come out on top.

Go figure... the Lexus is a high-end Toyota product and the Acura is a high-end Honda product. The industry-leading passenger car manufacturers also manufacture awesome luxury cars as well.

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Occasionally you hear on tv from the Ford workers when plants are shutting down, buy american cars!

How about, produce & sell something thats better that Japanese cars! Try being competetive rather than cut corners by selling it for top dollar because it looks and feels good when your in it, then your stranded along the highway and/or paying big bucks on repairs as soon as the warranty/mileage warranty expires. Ok, that was a run-on sentance but oh well

The only American company that i can say that has a good record (at least in the last 10 years) is Chevy & maybe the new Saturns. Any other American car company, if they want to compete, they have to beat the Japanese in their own game, yes that includes Chevy because i think they can do better than are they doing. Actually, the Japanese kick our asses in a lot of things because of how hard they work, their family values, lowest turnover rates at work, eating habits, physical fitness and the list goes on.

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Occasionally you hear on tv from the Ford workers when plants are shutting down, buy american cars!

How about, produce & sell something thats better that Japanese cars! Try being competetive rather than cut corners by selling it for top dollar because it looks and feels good when your in it, then your stranded along the highway and/or paying big bucks on repairs as soon as the warranty/mileage warranty expires. Ok, that was a run-on sentance but oh well

The only American company that i can say that has a good record (at least in the last 10 years) is Chevy & maybe the new Saturns. Any other American car company, if they want to compete, they have to beat the Japanese in their own game, yes that includes Chevy because i think they can do better than are they doing. Actually, the Japanese kick our asses in a lot of things because of how hard they work, their family values, lowest turnover rates at work, eating habits, physical fitness and the list goes on.

Chevy and Saturn are both General Motors. Many of the cars are even produced in the same plants as Pontiacs and Buicks (well, not Buicks any longer), and they're pretty much all designed in Warren, Michigan.

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Go figure... the Lexus is a high-end Toyota product and the Acura is a high-end Honda product. The industry-leading passenger car manufacturers also manufacture awesome luxury cars as well.

I honestly can't name a brand that continually rates high in design, safety, and reliability. Audi is VW's luxury line and it has had major reliability issues plaguing their entire fleet much like the VW line. All of the "luxury" lines are not created equal. Mercedes ranks very high on safety and is possibly worth the effort to continually repair faults for their make-up in safety rankings but generally speaking I would not have a Mercedes because it doesn't balance everything as well as say Lexus does.

Yes other manufactures produce high quality luxury lines but there are very few who offer a well-balanced automobile at an affordable price.

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Gotta go General Motors. My first car love was Cadillac, and I still love Cads. Of course, that's when it comes to classic cars. Classic cars are my life, my zen, my hobby. From them radiates everything that I am.

When it comes to modern cars (since the '70's or so), then I don't really like what anybody has put out with a few exceptions here and there. All this computer complication has squeezed the shadetree mechanic like myself beyond what we can really comprehend. I mean, you have to get another computer just to diagnose them. And it's this complication that makes me more than a little suspicious of everybody's reliability claims. How reliable can a car with a dozen computers really be? I barely even trust my desktop to run Word correctly. Plus, the amount of plastic that everybody uses in the interiors of cars is simply horrific, the styling is either ho-hum or completely ugly, and the safety nazis have everybody running scared. Would I drive modern cars? Yeah, some I guess. Do I like them? No. And I sure as hell wouldn't fork over as much money as these guys want for these things new. I'd feel far more comfortable shelling out $50k for a nice '54 Ford convertible than even $15k for a new car of any kind.

Some brands I just won't drive, period. Actually just Honda and BMW. It's not that there's necessarily anything wrong with these cars, but their image is not one with which I want to be associated at all. I won't touch either of these with a ten foot sterilized barge pole.

VW has been mentioned a few times, my impression on those is that reliability is hit-or-miss. My parents had a Passat 4Motion wagon and a New Beetle 1.8t both leased new in '00. The Passat was one of the most reliable cars we've ever owned, while the Beetle tirned out to be one of the most unreliable. But the service department at our dealer was simply awesome. They bent over backwards to get service done for free or under warrantee, even after the warrantee had expired. That experience alone counted for more than anything else.

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I honestly can't name a brand that continually rates high in design, safety, and reliability. Audi is VW's luxury line and it has had major reliability issues plaguing their entire fleet much like the VW line. All of the "luxury" lines are not created equal. Mercedes ranks very high on safety and is possibly worth the effort to continually repair faults for their make-up in safety rankings but generally speaking I would not have a Mercedes because it doesn't balance everything as well as say Lexus does.

Yes other manufactures produce high quality luxury lines but there are very few who offer a well-balanced automobile at an affordable price.

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Long gone is the day when you could say you liked one brand or another, and long gone is also the day when you can say import versus domestic. More and more of our "Domestic" models are made outside our country, while it's the foreign companies that are opening up plants here.

Making matters worse, many makes are changing hands so quickly that one manufacturer is producing what another one designed.

I like the new Acura models right now, but I have yet to drive any of them. I know a few people who swear by them. I know several Audi owners and mechanics, some of who swear by Audi, some who hate them. Teh same goes for just about every line out there. I don't think a single one of them, right now, can be said to consistently have good or bad scores - the markets and designs change too fast for that now.

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I am definitely a MOPAR man. My dad swore by GM, but the 1st 2 cars I owned which were GM kept me at the dealership with repairs. They make a good motor, but nothing else seemed to hold together. I have owned one and my only Ford. I also owned a new Nissan which I would repeat.

I have had 4 Chrysler products, an 88 LeBaron, a 96 Plymouth Breeze, a 00 Durango, and a 05 Durango. I have had absolutely no problems and when I have had to have service done the dealerships have treated me like gold. I have read that other people have had very different experiences with Chrysler products but I am completely happy so far.

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Unfortunately I think the dealers differ so markedly that they have a huge influence over the reputation of the make.

I have a Saab - this is my second. My local dealer is horrid, I would never buy one if I had to rely on him. However I found a good independant mechanic which keeps me happy. I have had a couple of occasions to use other Saab dealers in other places, and some of them have been absolutely astounding.

Also, I think our expectations have a lot to play. I know people who drive Toyotas and swear by them, racking up huge mileage and claiming nothing goes wrong with them. I have (tried to) drive them, and to be honest I would never take something like that on the road they were in such bad shape. In many cases people who buy luxury sport brands are much more critical of performance issue than your tippical point and shoot driver.